Winter Weekend 2/1 to 2/3/13

We enjoyed a very snowy Superbowl weekend on the shore of Lake Michigan. This has become a bit of a tradition that we go somewhere to cross country ski or snowshoe in early February.

Last June we decided Muskegon would be a fun place to which to return when the area was covered in snow. When we had been hiking on the many trails criss-crossing the Winter Sports Complex in the summer heat the previous June, we noticed the lights positioned for nighttime skiing. And we had noticed the luge run, thinking that might be fun to watch.

A much anticipated stop at Hop Cat on the way west found us enjoying a plate of their 'Crack' fries and pints of their own Oil Rigger stout. There's something besides salt, sugar and black pepper on the fries...possibly onion salt. Took us the whole plate to try to analyze them. I'm sure we'll have to take more future samples for study.

The Holiday Inn in downtown Muskegon was nice. 8 floors, and we took the stairs every chance we got. There was a Miss Shoreline pageant going on, so there were lots of impossibly young looking things walking around with very impractical shoes and dresses.

 Saturday we opted for snowshoeing, since that would give us a little more freedom. Even though it had been snowing nearly constantly for two days, the lake effect snow was still only a few inches deep...not that we are skiing experts by any stretch, it just seemed a little too shallow yet. Even snoeshoeing we were crunching through twigs, leaves and acorns on the forest floor. It had been in the upper 50's only days before, so the snow cover had started from nothing. Snowshoeing, we got more bang for the buck, as we were able to hike up and down some ridges and see the ice-jumbled beach. The water was still open (thus the constant lake-effect snow), so we could see white caps out beyond the ice, and floating pancake ice.

The snow was the fluffy, clingy kind. Didn't make the roads too bad, just right for coating everything with fresh white.

Tim had investigated a local restaurant on line last summer, and we got to visit not only for dinner that night, but lunch takeout the next day. Mia and Grace sources all their ingredients locally and has been open for 5 years. The vibe is casual (the menu is written on big pieces of brown butcher paper taped to the wall), and local art for sale inside. No alcohol license, but maybe that helps keep prices and complications down. The staff was enthusiastic and friendly, but for some reason they really seemed to be pushing certain dishes. Oh well, we couldn't argue with their recommendations: what we had was delicious. The Burmese pork stew and beef cheek ragu over long pasta ribbons were both absolutely perfect for a snowy winter evening. We tried the blue cheese stuffed dates, and got inspired to add another superbowl snack to our Sunday evening lineup. I duplicated them as closely as I could by mashing some blue cheese with some Neufchatel cheese, stuffing that into some big dates and topping them with slivers of our Johnston County country ham, and some maple syrup and sea salt toasted walnuts. I drizzled some Zingerman's balsamic vinegar over them.

Odd Side Ales serves no food; Mia and Grace serves no alcohol. The solution was to get a Chaurice PoBoy, a Duck PB and J, and a huge peanut butter cookie, and take the food to Odd Side Ales 20 minutes south in Grand Haven. Where we proceeded to sit for over 3 hours, enjoying the food with their Mayan Mocha Stout, Dutch Chocolate Koffie Stout, Peanut Butter Cup Stout, and a Smokin' Hama Mama. Our biggest regret was not getting more napkins: these are both very messy (but ridiculously good) sandwiches. And we played Words with Friends on our phones (we probably looked completely in sync with the times, hunched over our smartphones even though we were actually interacting with each other...really!) and watched the place fill up with a very family-oriented crowd. Other than a group of guys (one of which had an extraordinarily obnoxious laugh and was using foul language, despite all the little kids running around), it was the youngest crowd in a brewpub we'd ever seen. Other people brought in their dinners as well and proceeded to chase toddlers and enjoy themselves with the help of plenty of beer.

We left a little after sunset and decided to visit to the Grand Haven south pier lighthouse a few blocks away. By now it was even more bitterly cold, so we only walked a short way down the pier. There was no way I was walking all the way out to the lighthouse. I started thinking about the icy cement and how cold that water would be if one fell in. There'd be no time for rescue, even with the Coast Guard base right there. There were chunks of ice and slush floating on the swells in the canal, making a shushing sound. That's the same canal we were kayaking in 7 months ago. With a little more light, photos might have been taken. The sky had cleared up, but the feathered edge of more clouds (and snow) were coming from the west over the lake. Being on the same beach in the crunching snow and ice was something we'd never done before. It's always balmy summertime when we're in that town.

Tim had seen Toast N Jams in Muskegon the previous summer, and he scored a hit with locating another new restaurant for us to try Sunday morning. Perfect breakfast place, and even decorated with retro, Grandma-like kitchen tools.  One brief stop at Horrock's market in Lansing for supplies to make Superbowl snacks after making our way on a very snowy I-96, and then home.